August 2014

For the past few weeks I’ve been shooting with a Nikon D810 in a variety of situations. I wasn’t enough of a fan of the D800 to purchase one, so I didn’t expect to want to purchase my review Nikon D810 either. However, Nikon has done enough to improve the camera that it is now a winner for me, and this one will likely be staying right here in my camera bag. Here’s why…

While having a good painting program isn’t a requirement for most photographers, it can come in handy for sketching out ideas for the “bones” of an image (thanks to John-Paul Caponigro for effectively demonstrating that point to me originally). My favorite when I’m on Windows (or Mac) is ArtRage. The company has just released a solid update to version 4.5. I’ve been using the beta for awhile now and have been quite pleased with the new features…

One of the advances Nikon has made with the Nikon D810 is the complete removal of the low-pass (aka anti-aliasing) filter. The Nikon D800e achieved a similar effect by adding a second filter layer to undo the effects of the anti-aliasing filter, but the move to eliminate it completely in the D810 goes a step further. The concern, of course, is the potential for increased moire, or color interference patterns, in small details. To test out the Nikon D810 for moire in landscapes, I chose the Milwaukee skyline…